Germany may meet EU debt ceiling goal this or next year: Scholz

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany could meet the European Union’s Maastricht debt ceiling target, under which public debt amounts to no more than 60 percent of national output, this year or next, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.

“It is good that in the tenth year of this financial crisis we can say that this year or probably next year it is possible that we will achieve the Maastricht criteria of 60 percent debt ratio,” Scholz, a Social Democrat, told parliament.

He also said it was right that the German coalition under conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel has agreed to use any financial wiggle room for defense and development spending.